In the future, all currencies will be crypto. And you’ll need someone to manage all that crypto cash. That’s what CoinCube is trying to do: a way to manage cryptocurrency investments intelligently. Created by Robert Allen, Eric Kittell, Jibben Nee and Giovanni Meacci, the system is still in its relative infancy. They have about a 100 users with $430,000 in assets under management,… Read More

In anticipation of theScaling Bitcoin Hong Kongworkshop on the 6th and 7th of this month,BitFuryhas re-established its belief that the current 1 megabyte block-size limit must be changed only if agreed upon by consensus.

The largest mining pool outside of China, controlling some15 percentof hashing power on the Bitcoin network, maintains that it won't change its code to allow for bigger blocks through a solution that's not broadly accepted by the Bitcoin community – such as BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal)101.

“We will not use a solution if it is not based on a consensus among the Bitcoin community, as we think the idea of consensus is central to the Bitcoin protocol,”

BitFury CEO Valery Vavilov toldBitcoin Magazine. “AsBitcoin Core developers note, Bitcoin is not only software, but also a blockchain protocol. Therefore, we think that the Bitcoin protocol should be developed like other Internet protocols – by a consensus process involving all parties. This process may be lengthy, but it is better than making decisions that don’t consider all points of view.”

December might be a crucial month for Bitcoin's future, as the block-size dispute – representing a trade-off between the number of transactions the Bitcoin network can handle and its decentralization – might reach a critical juncture. A large segment of Bitcoin's engineering and academic community will discuss the issue of how best to scale Bitcoin at the upcoming workshop in Hong Kong starting this Sunday, while severalprominentBitcoincompanies have stated they intend to change their code to allow for bigger blocks shortly afterward.

Vavilov agrees that Bitcoin's block-size limit needs to be increased eventually, though he does not consider the situation as urgent as most proponents of a rapid increase do. Moreover, the BitFury CEO does not believe Bitcoin necessarily needs to scale 'on-chain,' as additional layers built on top of Bitcoin's blockchain should eventually be able to take on most of the workload.

“Bitcoin's block-size limit needs to be increased in order to achieve wide Bitcoin adoption, but we don't consider this an urgent issue,” Vavilov said. “As statistics suggest, the current average block size is a little over 0.5 megabyte – well below the 1 megabyte block-size limit. We believe that most of transaction throughput would be performed off-chain in the long term using Lightning, sidechains and other scaling technologies. However, even in this case, the blocks sizes need to be increased eventually; the authors of the Lightning white paper estimate the necessary block size for global Bitcoin plus Lightning adoption at more than 100 megabytes per block.”

One proposed block-size solution designed by former Bitcoin Core lead developer Gavin Andresen, BIP 101, was implemented in Bitcoin XT, the alternative Bitcoin implementation run by Google veteran Mike Hearn. This patch is programmed to increase the maximum block size to 8 megabytes if a threshold of 75 percent of mining power accepts the change. Once activated, this limit is set to double every two years for 20 years, ultimately leading to an 8-gigabyte block-size limit. BIP 101 is favored by several leading Bitcoin companies as well asSlush Pool.

Vavilov has no plans to change BitFury's code to allow for bigger blocks through BIP 101, however.

“As detailed in our white paper on the subject, we do not support an upgrade to BIP 101,” Vavilov said. “In our opinion, BIP 101 is not sufficiently tested nor theoretically substantiated. Its introduction could bring radical changes to the topology of the Bitcoin network. Additionally, we think that a more gradual increase of the block-size limit will help develop a transaction fee market. This would be great for the Bitcoin ecosystem from the security point of view.”

One alternative block-size proposal that has been gathering support is an incremental increase to 8 megabytes in three steps over four years time. Proposed as a temporary solution by Blockstream CEO and hashcash inventor Dr. Adam Back, this “2-4-8” option seems acceptable to a significant segment of the Bitcoin Core development team, as well as prominent industry members.

Vavilov indicated this solution could be acceptable, too.

“We would rather prefer to see a long-term solution,” the BitFury CEO said when asked by Bitcoin Magazine. “If increasing the block-size limit quickly is really necessary, a temporary solution would do fine, too, provided it would buy enough time to develop a long-term strategy.”

PrivatBank, Ukraine’s largest bank by assets is now offering online retailers the ability to receive Bitcoin as a payment before directly converting it into fiat currency that is deposited into the merchant’s account, as reported by PSM7. Upon the completion of its testing, PrivatBank is now offering online retailers the means to obtain a settlement in Bitcoin. The announcement was made by Christina Karmazin, head of E-Commerce at PrivatBank at a conference in Kiev, Ukraine today. Ukrainian online publication Payspace Magazine, reported the news that was revealed at the “Cross-border E-Commerce: The Import to Ukraine,” conference. Essentially, buyers can pay […]

Bitcoin Press Release: Lynn Duke, founder of Bitjoy says, “…as 7-year veteran app developers ourselves, we saw a giant gap between Apple and Google tools compared to what’s available in the bitcoin space for in-app purchase and engagements. We believe bitcoin will create entirely new business models for app ecosystems.” The platform is running on several apps in the Google Play Store and has been in private beta since September. During that time, over 2 million in-app engagements have been paid out to users. “As a developer, imagine being able to withdraw your in-app sales in a mere 10 minutes […]

Bitcoin price continues making controlled price wave around $360 as wider markets are swinging from this week's price extremes. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3-hour delay. Read the full analysis here. Not a member? Join now and receive a $29 discount using the code CCN29. Bitcoin Price Analysis Time of analysis: 14h30 UTC BTCC 1-Hour Chart From the analysis pages of xbt.social, earlier today: The 1-hour chart has no specific signals - as has often been the case during the past few weeks. The implication is that the present price move is not a major price wave. […]

Real-estate mogul Donald Trump said Thursday night that one of his "real dreams" for the US is for Apple and companies like it to shift their manufacturing operations to the US.

The Republican presidential front-runner made the comments during a wide-ranging interview while promoting his campaign book, "Crippled America," at his Trump Tower headquarters.

One of the questions was how Trump would convince big companies like Apple to move production jobs away from other countries and to the US.

"I love that question because we think of Apple as an American company," Trump replied. "But they make their product in China. And they have offices here but China makes more money with Apple than we do, if you think about it."

Trump added: "And we have to bring Apple — and other companies like Apple — back to the United States. We have to do it. And that's one of my real dreams for the country, to get … them back. We have a great capacity in this country."

The billionaire businessman pivoted to criticize China and Japan for manipulating their currencies, one of his favorite topics on the campaign trial.

"If you think about it, they have an advantage in a lot of ways. First of all, they manipulate the hell out of their currency, which just kills us. It makes it so hard to compete. I will get them to stop," Trump said. "But we have advantages because the shipping costs and the costs of what they do over there is so enormous."

The Equibit Development Corp. (EDC), which is building a block-chain-based securities register that manages OTC equity and offers the ability to use BTC-denominated dividends and distributions, is offering an investment opportunity. Toronto, Canada-based EDC plans to bring 1 million units of equity online and is offering investors an opportunity to purchase up to 200,000 preferred shares for 0.50 apiece USD and redeem them for an equivalent number of the pre-mined units. Chris Horlacher, Equibit CEO, believes the block-chain-based securities register will revolutionize OTC trading, CCN reported in August. Decentralized OTC Trading Promising “Much is being said today about applying block […]

Digital Asset Holdings’ CEO Blythe Masters has reportedly turned down an offer for a top management position at Barclays to stick with her blockchain technology startup. Blythe Masters, CEO of New York-based Digital Asset has turned down the chance to “run” Barclays’ investment banking division and chose to stay with her current blockchain-based startup Digital Holdings. Masters is among the most prominent figures on Wall Street and is known as one of the creators of the credit derivatives market. She left JP Morgan after 27 years with the bank and joined Digital Asset Holdings as CEO in March 2015. As […]

Bitcoin is drawing interest as an investment and store of value in India. Companies and high-net-worth individuals especially have begun looking to the cryptocurrency as a possible asset. Sandeep Goenka, CEO of India-based Bitcoin wallet Zebpay, explained to Business Standard that Bitcoin's deflationary nature makes it appealing as an asset class: “one can park money in the wallet in the hope that the value of bitcoins would go up.” Zebpay is one of several major players on the Indian Bitcoin scene; others include wallet Unocoin and trading platform Coinsecure. Goenka explained that Zebpay is currently seeing growth of 3,000-4,000 users […]

Stocks tumbled as the ECB's stimulus failed to match expectations.The European Central Bank ramped up efforts to stimulate the sluggish eurozone economy, but the measures fell far short of what investors had expected and stocks took a painful tumble.

US manufacturing bounced back. New orders for US factory goods rebounded in October after two straight months of declines, but manufacturing remains crippled by a strong dollar and spending cuts in the energy sector.

Alibaba should buy Paramount Studios.Viacom Inc's second-largest shareholder has urged the media company to sell a stake in its Paramount movie studio to Alibaba Group Holding, according to the Financial Times.

Etihad suffered after the Paris attacks.Etihad Airways had a dip in bookings for travel from Europe to the Middle East after the Paris attacks and has stepped up vigilance for potential security threats, Chief Executive James Hogan said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. job growth likely remained solid in November in a show of the economy's resilience, which could pave the way for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this month for the first time in nearly a decade.

A Reuters survey of economists forecast nonfarm payrolls rising 200,000, adding to the 271,000 jobs created in October.

The unemployment rate is expected to hold at a 7-1/2-year low of 5 percent. It is in a range many Fed officials see as consistent with full employment and has dropped seven-tenths of a percentage point this year.

"The employment report will give the Fed confidence to begin raising rates in December. It will have to be a disaster for the Fed to delay until 2016," said Ryan Sweet, senior economist at Moody's Analytics in Westchester, Pennsylvania.

The Labor Department's closely watched jobs report will be released on Friday at 8:30 a.m. (1330 GMT).

Fed Chair Janet Yellen struck an upbeat note on the economy when she testified before lawmakers on Thursday, describing how it had largely met the criteria the U.S. central bank has set for the Fed's first rate hike since June 2006.

Yellen said the economy needs to create just under 100,000 jobs a month to keep up with growth in the working age population. The Fed's policy-setting committee will meet on Dec. 15-16.

"We believe the hurdle for dissuading the Fed from action at this time is extremely high," said Michelle Girard, chief economist at RBS in Stamford, Connecticut.

DIMINISHING SLACK

Another month of strong job gains would allay fears the economy had hit a soft patch, after reports showing tepid consumer spending in October and a slowdown in services industry growth in November. Manufacturing contracted in November for the first time in three years.

Though wage growth likely slowed last month, economists say that would mostly be payback for October's outsized gains, which were driven by a calendar quirk. Anecdotal evidence, as well as data on labor-related costs, suggest that tightening job market conditions are starting to put upward pressure on wages.

Average hourly earnings are forecast rising 0.2 percent after increasing 0.4 percent in October. That would lower the year-on-year reading to 2.3 percent from 2.5 percent.

"Wage growth finally appears to be firming after showing few signs of progress even as slack declined quickly," said David Mericle, an economist at Goldman Sachs in New York.

Other labor market measures that Fed officials are eyeing as they consider lifting the benchmark overnight interest rate from near zero are expected to have held steady last month.

But the labor force participation rate, or the share of working-age Americans who are employed or at least looking for a job, likely rose from a near 38-year low of 62.4 percent.

Employment gains in November were likely broad-based, though manufacturing and mining probably lost more jobs.

Manufacturing has been crippled by a strong dollar, efforts by businesses to reduce bloated inventory and spending cuts by energy companies scaling back well drilling and exploration in response to sharply lower oil prices.

Mining employment has already declined by 109,000 since reaching a peak in December 2014.

Oilfield services provider Schlumberger this week announced another round of job cuts in addition to 20,000 layoffs already reported this year. The company said it expected the slowdown in drilling activity to continue in 2016.

Further gains are expected in construction payrolls. The services sector will likely account for the bulk of the increase in employment, but retail and courier payrolls are a wild card as company are now starting their holiday hiring a bit earlier than in prior years.

The drops of silicon oil bobbing in the mesmerizing video above do more than create aesthetically satisfying ripples across a slick surface. They could be indirect evidence of an alternate solution to a nagging question in quantum mechanics — one that dates back almost a century.